The Moon

version

Well-known member
I can't hear the term 'ornithologist' and not think of the ridiculous flirting in Die Another Day.

 
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catalog

Well-known member
Have you ever tried looking at the moon with binoculars? It's mad how much you can see.

Never have, but I don't doubt you. Clearly that's part of the attraction, in contrast to the sun, which you can't ever look at properly. The sun exhibition at mosi has a brilliant bit at the end with a huge video of the sun in different lights, so you can see it as a literal ball of fire.
 

sufi

lala
Have you ever tried looking at the moon with binoculars? It's mad how much you can see.
like with the planets' moons, it boggles my mind that all that glory has been hanging about up there for aeons waiting for us to get our shit together and work out optics
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Anyway, back to the moon.

Interesting that it is white.

I was looking at the moon a few weeks ago. Was saying it's amazing how bright it is, considering that it's just dust. And the dust is dull grey. How the heck does dull grey dust reflect light so well, and look so white? Is that just testament to how powerful the sun is? It looks like a powered light up there.
 
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catalog

Well-known member
So we see the moon as glistening white because of the sun? Why is it surrounded by darkness then?

Also, is it too simplistic to say that the moon is to the earth as the earth is to the sun? Just different dimensions and colours?
 

catalog

Well-known member
like with the planets' moons, it boggles my mind that all that glory has been hanging about up there for aeons waiting for us to get our shit together and work out optics

Yeah. There's something in Levi-Strauss about how he was shocked when one of the tribes he did fieldwork with pointed out a star (maybe the dog star?) to him, and he couldn't see it, thought they were shit talking, but they kept going on about it, pointed it out in the sky. He never saw it but came to the realisation that his eyes couldn't make it out, whereas theirs could, because he was too attuned to the lit city, whereas they still had nights full of stars.

Makes sense really if you think about how well developed astronomy / astrology was, from early on.

It's like we now need new machines to see, cos of all the shit we've put in the way.
 

version

Well-known member
I've always been a night person and the night sky just has something about it. I don't get that feeling from anything else. It's the ultimate escapism really, looking out into space. I feel like everything's going to be alright in that moment and Burroughs' little monologue about the next step being leaving the body followed by the planet often comes to mind. There's this aching sense that we're supposed to be out there, not stuck down here.

 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
So we see the moon as glistening white because of the sun? Why is it surrounded by darkness then?

Space is just space so there's nothing to reflect the light, simple as that.

Actually, a consequence of cosmological models that posit that the universe is infinite in extent is that the night sky 'should' be very bright in whatever direction you look. This is called Olber's Paradox. It has various solutions.

Also, is it too simplistic to say that the moon is to the earth as the earth is to the sun? Just different dimensions and colours?

You're onto something here: the ratio of the sun:earth distance to the earth:moon distance is almost exactly the same as the ration of the sun's diameter to the moon's diameter. This means the two objects appear to be almost exactly the same size from the POV of anyone on earth. This enables the spectacular visual effects of solar and lunar eclipses. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the evolution of myth systems that cast the sun and moon as either siblings or a couple.
 

catalog

Well-known member
This means the two objects appear to be almost exactly the same size from the POV of anyone on earth. This enables the spectacular visual effects of solar and lunar eclipses. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the evolution of myth systems that cast the sun and moon as either siblings or a couple.

Yeah, that is quite odd and interesting, and it probably is responsible for quite a lot.
 
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